Redlands, California—March 01, 2012—Esri was named winner of a 2012 IBM Beacon Award for Best Industry Solutions for Government in recognition of Esri Maps for IBM Cognos. This honor is awarded each year to a select number of IBM business partners to recognize information technology excellence, commitment to skills attainment, industry knowledge, and innovative solutions based on IBM technology and services.

"Esri shares IBM's vision for a smarter planet," said Esri president Jack Dangermond. "Esri Maps for IBM Cognos helps deliver that vision by integrating Esri maps and data into IBM Cognos Business Intelligence reports, providing powerful analytics capabilities."

The Beacon Awards are a central and vital element of IBM's business partner recognition program. Announced at the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference (held this year in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States) and selected by leading industry influencers and IBM executives from among hundreds of nominations, IBM Beacon Awards recognize a small number of IBM business partners that have demonstrated business excellence in delivering IBM-based solutions resulting in client transformation and business growth. This year's awards recognized business partner achievements in 27 award categories.

"The IBM Beacon Awards were established more than a dozen years ago to recognize business partners globally for their excellence and innovative solutions based on IBM technology," said Mark Hennessy, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners & Midmarket. "Our winners are business partners that have delivered unique and innovative solutions that raise the standard for business excellence, bringing client value. We congratulate Esri on winning the Beacon Award for Best Industry Solutions for Government and demonstrating its ability to provide value by creating Esri Maps for IBM Cognos."

For more information about the IBM Beacon Awards, including information about winners and finalists, visit https://www304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/pw_com_prb_beacon.

To learn more about IBM PartnerWorld, a comprehensive program that offers marketing and sales resources, training, certification, and technical support to help create new revenue and market opportunities for IBM business partners, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld. To find an IBM business partner with a particular set of skills, a technology reseller, or a consultant with industry expertise, visit the Business Partner Locator at https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/bplocator/search.jsp.

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About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.